Many staff climb the profession ladder believing that another person has to fall off for them to rise. However former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says that’s not solely fallacious—it’s what’s holding individuals again.
“There are far too many people in this world and in professional life who approach things with a zero-sum game,” Harris mentioned not too long ago on The Diary of a CEO podcast. “If I have more, you have less. And it is incredibly shortsighted.”
Sadly, she added, it’s the precise mindset that will have damage her possibilities of turning into the chief of state. Harris had sensed for “quite some time” that White Home staffers had been stifling her profession accomplishments whereas working alongside former U.S. president Joe Biden—downplaying the spectacular monitor document that proved she had the chops for the job. A symptom of that very same shortage mindset.
As an alternative of hyping up her profession accomplishments, presidential staff shrouded them—and Harris felt it was an intentional selection to ensure she didn’t outshine Biden. However it might have backfired when she stepped up because the Democratic nominee within the 2024 presidential race in opposition to Donald Trump, which she not too long ago spoke about at Fortune’s Most Highly effective Ladies summit.
Wanting again now, the 61-year-old Democrat mentioned that suppressing others’ success doesn’t defend your personal—it simply undermines all the mission.
“It’s actually quite provincial thinking when you’re talking about the stakes that were at play in our administration and, of course, in the election.”
It was ‘counterproductive’ to downplay Harris’ achievements
Harris wasn’t blind to the best way she was dealt with by presidential staffers—however she didn’t perceive the total extent till after the election.
Tales unfold, particularly of how White Home staff didn’t defend her in opposition to media assaults regardless of being able to take action. In her new ebook, 107 Days, Harris wrote that employees had been “adding fuel” to unfavourable narratives. In reality, she felt the president’s inside circle appeared “fine with it” and that she must be “knocked down” a bit extra.
“It was clear to me in terms of just the challenges with getting them to uplift, getting them to defend, especially when there were inaccurate, unfair attacks,” Harris mentioned. “To the extent that the vice president is being attacked, resources were available but not used to defend the vice president in the way that they could have.”
Harris drew the conclusion that staffers had been holding her again in an effort to set Biden as much as win his second election. However when he dropped out of the operating simply 4 months shy of the U.S. presidential voting day, Harris was rushed to select up the items. She waged her marketing campaign because the Democratic nominee, however misplaced out to sitting President Trump. The harm from Biden’s inside circle suppressing her achievements and letting unfavourable narratives run wild was accomplished.
In different phrases, success isn’t a restricted useful resource—it’s a pie large enough for everybody to get a slice. Now, the Democratic Get together has realized that lesson the exhausting method. “It was counterproductive,” Harris concluded. “We rose and fell together.”
CEOs agree that it takes a village to achieve success
Harris isn’t the one chief who believes success must be shared, not sequestered to at least one individual. In a go to to his alma mater, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defined his management philosophy: don’t deal with being the one winner, and uplift others round you.
“As a leader, a lot of your job is to make [employees] successful,” Pichai mentioned in 2022. “It’s less about trying to be successful [yourself], and more about making sure you have good people and your work is to remove that barrier, remove roadblocks for them so that they can be successful in what they do.”
Indra Nooyi, former CEO of $200 billion large PepsiCo, additionally depends on individuals as her superpower. She dispels the parable that leaders can attain new heights of success all by themselves—it takes a village to get there.
“Looking at your people as assets, not tools for the trade, are going to be the only successful elements of the formula for the future,” Nooyi mentioned on a podcast earlier this yr with Northwestern’s Kellogg College of Administration. “Individuals are going to make you profitable. You possibly can’t do all of it your self.
